About That Sex Scandal. . .

Oh, goody, a juicy sex scandal potentially involving Bill Clinton. How could it be otherwise? John has already pointed out the potentiality of this story exploding on Hillary Clinton if it is true. There may be videotapes! In this year of celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Back to the Future movies, can a stained blue dress be far behind?

Britain’s Daily Mail offers up a very long and detailed account of the scandal from the woman at the center of it, Virginia Roberts. This is the kind of story that you might be inclined to think is true because of the level of detail (though some details sound dubious), which should permit some cross checking, including with a few other women named in the story.

On the other hand, it should be noted that all of the details here concern only one alleged party to the party: Prince Andrew. Prince Andrew is not likely to sue either the Daily Mail or Roberts for libel, even under Britain’s more accommodating libels laws. Given his prior reputation, Prince Andrew is going to have a hard time wriggling out of this, even if the story is completely false.

But nothing about Bill Clinton. Nothing about Alan Dershowitz, who is the one party so far to suggest he’ll sue if the allegations are made outside of court filings. Nothing about anyone else who might be a party to this sordid story. That ought to be a yellow flag at least. Let’s see what else someone can produce.